New UK Rules Tackle Late Payment of Suppliers and Vendors

In Payment Practices and Performance Reporting, New UK rules aimed at tackling late payment of suppliers and vendors will require large businesses to report on their payment practices and performance, Pillsbury partner Tim Wright discusses draft regulations published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on February 2 requiring certain companies to publish information about their payment practices and policies, and their performance by reference to those practices and policies, and BEIS’ guidance on the regulations. The new regulations are expected to become effective on April 6, 2017.

Of note, the current draft regulations do not distinguish between payment practices in respect of third party contracts versus intra-group arrangements – this is a little odd because the regulations are aimed at improving the time that smaller suppliers wait for payment from their large customers. We are waiting to see of this is addressed in the final version of the regulations, although since the issue was not raised at the consultation stage, we think that’s unlikely at this late hour.